Lessig challenges DMCA takedown notice
Managing IP is part of the Delinian Group, Delinian Limited, 4 Bouverie Street, London, EC4Y 8AX, Registered in England & Wales, Company number 00954730
Copyright © Delinian Limited and its affiliated companies 2024

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Lessig challenges DMCA takedown notice

Know your enemy. Did Australian company record company Liberation Music bear this advice in mind when it requested that YouTube block the video of a lecture titled “Open” given by Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig?

Yesterday Lessig – a well-known political activist and critic of the copyright systemretaliated, asking the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts to grant declaratory judgment, injunctive relief and damages. He is represented by lawyers from the law firm Jones Day and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The dispute concerns a lecture Lessig gave at a Creative Commons conference in Seoul, Korea in June 2010. The lecture included several clips of amateur music videos to illustrate cultural developments in the age of the internet.

The clips included groups of people dancing to the song “Lisztomania” by the band Phoenix, which is represented by Liberation Music. Lessig claims his use of the clips is permitted under the fair use doctrine and does not infringe copyright.

In June 2013, a video of the lecture was posted on YouTube. On June 30, Lessig received a notice from YouTube saying the video of his lecture had been blocked under its filtering procedures as it included content owned or licensed by Viacom (the notice, included in the court documents, was addressed “Dear lessig”).

It is believed that Liberation Music sought to block the video at about the same time.

When Lessig disputed the block, Liberation Music issued a DMCA takedown notice, demanding the removal of the video. When Lessig submitted a counter-notice, Liberation Music emailed him threatening legal proceedings within 72 hours and he retracted his counter-notice.

Lessig’s suit seeks a declaration that the video of the lecture is protected by the fair use doctrine and does not infringe copyright as well as an order enjoining Liberation from asserting a copyright claim against him. He is also seeking damages, costs and other just relief.

more from across site and ros bottom lb

More from across our site

Rob Stien, chief communications and public policy officer at InterDigital, says the EU has forgotten innovators while trying to resolve an issue that doesn’t exist
As Australia’s Qantm IP leans towards being acquired by a private equity company, sources discuss what it could mean for IP firms
Law firms that are conscious of their role in society are more likely to win work, according to a survey of over 23,000 in-house professionals
Pham Nghiem Xuan Bac, managing partner of Vision & Associates, discusses opportunities created by the US-China rift as well as profitability issues facing IP practices
Douglas Leite and two of his colleagues were intrigued by Bhering Advogados’s mission to grow its patent litigation practice
Each week Managing IP speaks to a different IP practitioner about their life and career
Counsel explain how pricing flexibility, patent agents and being business partners can help them maintain profitable patent prosecution practices
We provide a rundown of Managing IP’s news and analysis from the week, and review what’s been happening elsewhere in IP
Speakers at an INTA event weighed in on why firms should create AI use policies and how they stay on top of the latest developments
The England and Wales Court of Appeal backed Lidl in its trademark dispute with Tesco, but we should pay more attention to how we rule on first-instance decisions
Gift this article